The Dead Shall Rise - Lent 2020
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
Isaiah 26:19
The great promise of God raising us from the dead, just like he rose from the dead, is something we hope for all our loved ones.
My brother-in-law had been sick for many years before he passed. My one prayer over his last four years was for God to save him before he died. I would regularly send him Bible verses and sermons in the hope that it would awaken his heart to the Gospel.
At one point near the end, he mentioned to my sister that he was scared to die. He asked, if he didn’t make it to Heaven, would she reach down and pull him up when she got there? His fear was real and heartbreaking to hear.
He was scared to die… until the very end.
He passed on Ash Wednesday. In the last hours leading up to his death, he received ashes and made his confession. My sister later shared with me, in his final moments, surrounded by his children, he told them he loved them and to stick together like Elmer’s Glue. With his last breath, he said Jesus was there for him. He was not scared anymore, and he had to go now. I believe in those last hours, God granted him salvation by His grace and the mercy, through his son, Jesus Christ.
Our only hope in the world is in Jesus, in his work on the cross, and in his resurrection.
Lord Jesus, thank you for dying the death we were destined for and deserved. You took that death and defeated it for us by rising from the dead. Thank for saving us. We pray that you would raise more of our Native brothers and sisters from death and bring them into your family of believers. Amen.